HEALING POWER OF HEARTFELT PRAYER....

OUR thoughts, our actions….life is a constant prayer; you are always a part of God, because you are never apart from God.

Prayer is the most important part of the human experience. It is most important part of our daily activities. I say, it the process by which we create our lives. Life is a prayer in the sense that it is continuous request to the God to present us with what we choose and desire. Don’t we think God understands our desires not just through the occasional utterances that we call ‘prayer’? God understands our desires through every thought we think, every word we speak and through our every action.

Unfortunately, most people do not think life is a constant prayer; life is an unremitting exercise. Not the counting of the rosary or the rolling of the tulsimala but the subconscious consciously calling out to that Supreme Power which alone can fulfill our desires. The power of prayer, where does it come from? The answer is: when it emerges straight from the heart. True prayer is not burdened with rituals.

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It is not necessary even to visit a place of worship to pray. God is every where. One can make one’s own prayer in one’s own words and language which one understands. As far God, He understands every language; He understands even unspoken prayer said in the language of silence. As Horne says, “Prayer is the voice of faith.”“I humbly claim to be a man of prayer,” said Mahatma Gandhi. “I am indifferent as to the form.” In a prayer what matters most is the sincerity of our words, the purity of thoughts and the intensity of our feelings. “A heartfelt prayer says Mahatma Gandhi, “is not a recitation with the lips. It is a yearning from within…”

I believe thought control is the highest form of prayer. Therefore, think only on good things, and righteous. Dwell not in negativity and darkness. And even in moments when things look weak—especially in those moments—see only perfection, express only gratefulness, and then imagine only what manifestation of perfection you chose next; this is what motivational ‘Guru’ Neale Donald Walsch propagates. In this formula is found tranquillity. In this process awareness is found joy. Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev Ji says, “Authentic prayer is a deep connection with the Divine inherent in every thing and everywhere. It is the quality, a state of being. As we become prayerful it is extremely beautiful but that state is reached only when we connect to our inner nature.” Then the experience is absolutely joyous; we are wide open and we can receive the bliss.

Neale Donald Walsch, the author of ‘Conversation with God-III’, says hemade two important points about prayer were made in that dialogue. The first point is that the mostpowerful prayer is the prayer of gratitude. When we thank God in advance what we wish to use and experience in our lives, we affirm that we have already received it and all that is waiting is our perception of receiving it. I consider the most simple and extraordinary prayer is of one sentence, in which I have my faith, “Thank you God forhelping me to comprehend that this problem has already been solved for me.” This simple prayer has moved me through the most turbulent moments in my life into peace and equanimity and even serenity. I believe God gives us problems to humble us and not to tumble us. Problems are a part of life.

Second major point about prayer put forward by N. D. Walsch is that every one may have a conversation with God. The process by which we communicate with God and by which God communicates with us is open to all of us, not just to a select few—not to ‘saints’, the ‘sages, the ‘guru’ and the wisdom bringers of all time but to butchers, the murderer, homemakers,--all of us. God’s communications with us is two-way, not one-way. God says to us that it is not necessary to pray a prayer of supplication. A prayer of supplication is a statement that we do not now have something, or we would not be asking for it. Therefore, asking for something literally pushes it away, for one does not ask for something one already has. In the request, then, is hidden our scarcity. I add up bysaying our prayers should be for blessings in general, said Socrates, “For God knows best what is good for us.” More specific we may pray for; give us the strength, to counter that which is to come, that we may be brave in peril.

Prayer is a great source of psychic energy. “When we pray,” Writes Dr. Alexis Carrel, “we link ourselves with the inexhaustible motive power that spins the universe.” Prayer has immense therapeutic value. People who have faith and who pray are psychologically, better tuned to deal with problems. They are less prone to stress.

Patanjali, the father of yoga, goes as far as to say that when one knows how to be truly prayerful, prayer is not a means to reach God, but God is only a means so that we can pray.

Life throws up both challenges and opportunities. The art of living is to seize the opportunity to transform one’s life into a prayer and using the power to cut through the challenges.